The Big Lebowski / Cragganmore 12 (plus NKD LDY)

0:00 So, here's the deal everybody. We just absolutely love producing as much content as possible for film and whiskey Nation. But if our regular episodes aren't enough for you, then you can head on over to patreon.com film whiskey sign up for one of our memberships and you will get a slew of extra content for your listening. Pleasure, check us out on patreon.com film. Whiskey in 1998, the Coen brothers and starred Jeff Bridges gave the world of Current picture of a man who proves no matter the wild Shenanigans happening around him that the Dude abides. In 2023, we make a return trip to the space side region of Scotland.

0:42 The film is The Big Lebowski. The whiskey is Craig and more 12 year and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and this week we are looking at the 1998. Coen brothers comedy. The Big Lebowski, the biggest Lebowski Brad. It's been a wild ride.

1:29 We've done. Only three films by the Coen Brothers here and yet I feel like we have really, and truly, like, run the run the gamut here of wild crazy chaotic Cohen's. Yeah, there is so much going on in these three films. That you realize the Coen brothers, are one of the most ridiculous filmmakers that we've had over the last 30 years, in such a way that you have to watch their movies. Multiple times to really suss out everything that's going on. It's been really fascinating for me because I feel like we've focused more heavily on serious Cohen stuff before we got to this miniseries. You know, we did Fargo, we have done No Country for Old Men and now we're getting into three of their comedies and I think people sometimes undersell just How Deeply silly they are because they're also so good at finding really deep. Profound dramatic things in the world to highlight, you know, and it's been pretty easy to pick out major themes with the cohens that I've already said chaos once but chaos and Randomness kind of ruled the day in a lot of their movies. And I think even more.

2:44 So in their later films and it's true with the comedies as well. But there's a there's a silliness and a sweetness there that I think fits right in, you know, even among some of the more dramatic stuff because of that consistent theme of the happen, Dance of chaos. And I think that's the beauty of the Coen Brothers, is that whether or not you are watching a serious film from them or just one other, you know, almost you would call a screwball comedy. They are very deep thinkers. Like, there's no other way of putting it. They like, they think deeply about the world around them, and why they believe what they believe, and they translate that into film. And I think, They give you some of the most interesting characters that you ever get in cinema. You know what I mean?

3:36 Like, the, the, the people that they put onto a script and then are, you know, brought to life in their films are some of the most unique personalities that you will ever watch in a movie. Yeah, I mean, it's really similar to what we had with Wes Anderson, right? When we did Wes Anderson, a few months ago, there's only one filmmaker that can really make a movie, like, Wes Anderson. It there's a Is there and with the Coen Brothers you know, not all of their films are set in the same time or place or even like levels of reality and yet they always seemed like Cohen characters and I don't really know how else to explain it except for that but thankfully we have someone with us today Brad that you can probably hear chuckling in the background a little bit, that might be able to help us parse that out, and that is author and journalist Kathleen. Focsani Kathleen.

4:25 How are you today? I'm good and you guys are spot. Not on its depth. I will argue about the chaos later. Oh, there we go. You're spot on, except for that major arguments if anyone's taking exactly. So Kathleen has by lines all over the place. I'm not going to read all of the extensive writing that she's done. But for our purposes, the most important thing that she's written is a book called the Dude abides The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, which I have had on my bookshelf for like a decade. Now, it is a super helpful book for parsing. Out the themes inside of Coen, Brothers, films, and Kathleen. I bought this book primarily because for a long time, I thought the cohens were like a really tough nut to crack. I I really struggled with some of their later films, I think for me like the dividing line was, when I went to see Inside Llewyn Davis in 2013, you're correct and it just seems like such.

5:25 I don't even want to call it a mean-spirited movie. But a movie that it felt like They were finally kind of tipping into nihilism and thing something shifted for sure. Yes, and I don't know that they've ever quite recovered from that and I love you, if they ever hear the stolen even, you know, I love you, but they haven't not yet, but I think there's been a lot going on behind the scenes. Sure. Sure, you in something to matically for sure. But yeah, you know, and so because of that, I hadn't really gone back into their back catalog. And this book really inspired me to do that because there are so many Just deep Redemptive themes in their films that are begging to be discovered.

6:05 And as I guess, I'm just saying thank you for writing this book. You're super welcome. And have to tell you, I have been a rabid. Khan Brothers fan from. I think I'm sure the first one I saw was Raising Arizona when I was in college. But there, because they are such, I mean, just the genre wise, they've done, Just about everything but a horror film and you could maybe argue that their very first. One Blood Simple was in fact a semi horror film but Noir slapstick. Every genre every era, you know, black and white hyperrealism, I was trying to figure out what it was about them.

6:49 That made me love these completely diverse films, mmm. And when I started to look at that is when I realized that it was the spiritual And if you will that runs that I saw running through most of their films that I was like, okay what's going on here? There's a lot more Beyond, whatever the genre, whatever the slapstick or whatever. Like the bloody knew Ernest of the film is, there's there are some Staples to the I call at the Kona verse. I think, in my book it's not a very complex, moral code, but there is one and I started to see it but it was I fell head over heels with those themes and with their writing and their entire roof. When I saw Lebowski, which I can't believe this 25 years. Yeah, on February 24th.

7:46 It's really crazy. I typed it into IMDb just to kind of look at some facts about it. In the first thing that popped up was see, showtimes for this movie and I was like, why is this playing again? And I hadn't done that yet, but they're doing a re-release in April Nationwide for the 25th anniversary. And I will be going to where fourteen masks because I've been very careful during covid. I still haven't caught it. Yeah. But I will risk putting on 13 maths and seeing it on the big screen again. There you go. So, I guess I mean, that that's a great segue. Into my next question, here we are going to get into talking about the movie here. And why is Lebowski the representative film for this book? I got this book came out in 09 so the cohens have released some films since then.

8:26 Yeah, you know you could have titled this after anything, you could. You know, the cover could have been Marge Gunderson with a big halo around her head and instead it's a picture of Jeff Lebowski. Why did this become kind of the skeleton key for all of their other films? Well, it's their most conspicuously spiritual film. Hmm. It's they're not the most overtly, so that would be a serious man where they kind of do a deep dive into Judaism. Their own Judaism, and actually the theme of lamech valve necks, which I talked about in the chapter about Lebowski funny. Funny story, I had an inside man in the production of a serious man because that Came out that what that movie was coming out the month that this book was releasing. Wow.

9:18 And so and this person in the cast, snuck me a shooting script. And so, I knew what the story was, and when I saw that, a serious man is talking about him being a lab. Not advised, Nick, which I talked about a little baski chapter. I did like the highest of self fives ever. Anyway, but yeah, I was really thrilled when I saw that because all of what I saw in the Lebowski film Which were these. To me themes that came out of the the morality of their early Judaism. You could see them starting to sort of flirt, with some of you never know if the person that you're hosting is an angel kind of theme way.

10:03 Back in Raising Arizona. I mean, the sort of holy fool is a theme that they come back to hudsucker, proxy is another one that comes to mind the ladykillers. Which by the way is one of Most underrated films. Yeah, so Lebowski was just wear it for me. All of these Whispers And threads that were in other films coalesced and the cover of my of my book is an icon made by a Chicago artist named Eric Rose who had actually made that icon or one very similar to it. That's on the cover and I had seen it. And okay, so he's a saint. So what would be the other icons being what would be, how would they be emblematic of, the not theology, but the moral universe or the spirituality in each of the films.

10:54 And so it was that seeing that icon that are crows had made put sort of planted the idea for The Gospel According to in my mind and then we were really lucky enough to commission Eric to do a new icon for each film that had come out at that point, it was up to a serious man, so Why again I can't speak highly enough about the book itself. We're going to dive into the movie here. And for those of you who are listeners to the show you know that that means we have a segment called Brad explains now. The whole premise of the show is that a lot of times Brad has not seen these classic movies and that I'm kind of introducing him to them. Brad had you seen Lebowski before today, I had not seen the biggest pearl clutch in the world just now sorry. Yeah.

11:45 The Coen Brothers as a directorial, team were brand new to me coming into the podcast. I think. Did we do Fargo first? Or I want to say, we didn't know country first. And then okay. Yeah. I don't think no country was my favorite introduction to them. I liked the movie, but man, it was so dark, you know? Just a little bit Fargo, though. Definitely. Redeemed them. If I'm being honest Bob it's been an up-and-down Journey for me and the the old Coen brothers. So the Killer's I was going to say coming off of last week's Raising Arizona debacle. Yeah man that was Brad you have 60 seconds on the clock to break down the plot of The Big Lebowski a largely plotless film question mark.

12:39 So it's going to be great. Yeah you've got a minute on the clock. I'm gonna start the Timer. Now, The Big Lebowski is about a man named Jeff Lebowski, who goes by the dude or, as Kathleen said El duderino he is a slacker pot-smoking hippie that lives in the 90s and likes to go bowling. Although we never want to see him actually bowl a bowling ball in the film, and he gets mistaken for a multi-millionaire Jeff Lebowski he's attacked by some thugs they pee on his carpet. He goes to the multi-millionaire Jeff Lebowski and demands reparations for his destroyed carpet. And this sends him on to a wild goose. Chase to help find the big lebowski's the the millionaire lebowski's lost wife, who has been kidnapped, he cuts a bunch of deals with different people.

13:34 Like Big Lebowski, his daughter mob, Lebowski, who wants to become pregnant by him. He lies to a lot of people and tries to deceive them in the giving him money, he eventually gets his friend killed of a heart attack in a fight with some German nihilists. And it's a wild time, man. Very wide, very wild. The most important thing to remember, Bob Kathleen, the Dude abides, there you go, I realized that I was supposed to cut bread off multiple times and I was talking into a muted microphone. I was like, man, he's really just plowing ahead. I chicken. And that's 60 seconds, man. I've never seen the logline for Lebowski but like, how on Earth would you tell it if it's best?

14:22 I don't know. They're like, how do you even describe a movie like this? Because I feel like I've seen comedies, like this, where I don't want to call it a comedy of errors, even though it kind of is that, but it's a farce, it's a farce and it kind of has the structure of the bones of a movie like to throw it way back, like the big sleep, which is a real famous. Yeah. Noir movie. And it's famous because the plot is incomprehensible. Like there's, there's just you just kind of go along for the ride. And this is one of those movies where there's so many double and triple crosses and characters with the same name and you don't know motivations and who's lying to who after a while. It's just like you throw your hands up in the air like John Goodman and you say like effort, let's go bowling like that.

15:06 To me is like the perfect summation of this movie. Well, yeah, well spotted, the thing about Noir because Brothers are huge and why our fans Dashiell Hammett and all that. I mean, that's their, you know, they kind of give as Wes Anderson does nods to the things that they love in their films then they love Noir. All right? So Brad, I kind of structured the three weeks of these episodes because I wanted to go from the one that is at least on the surface like the most rooted in reality or very simple Jude to Raising Arizona which is a very heightened sense of reality. But like, I don't, at least for me, still more plausible than the events of this film. Like is it realistic Bob?

15:49 I don't, I didn't say it was realistic. This is whatever Bowl in LA in the early 90s. I did not, but I did not. I also didn't imagine that like, you know, German electro-pop, leather-wearing. Nihilists with with a marmot we're wandering into and you realize that one of them is flee from the residential pepper. Yes. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, if I Add Brad ordered these in a different order like, would it have made more or less sense tonight? At least structure these in a way that kind of prepared you for Lebowski. I think that you should have embraced the Coen Brothers, narrative and just randomized it and allowed the chips to fall with a way. That's fair.

16:34 Let's talk performances. Guys, I want to talk about Jeff Bridges because because like Kathleen said, this is an iconic performance and truly iconic. Like I mean it is still inspiring hastily thrown together Halloween costumes every year and an entire religion. Yes, I mean that to, you know, as you do. Yeah. But Jeff Bridges is to this day. One of our most underrated actors and I feel like because he don't want to call him soft-spoken but for me he kind of fits in with a certain type of leading man. He's understated in almost everything he does and because of that, I don't feel like we always see. The shades of grey that separate his characters.

17:17 But if you look at, I mean this movie 25 years later where he's playing one of the lead roles in like Seabiscuit. 25 years after that, where he's in Iron Man playing like a ham is Tony. Yeah. Like the handiest villain ever, he really does have tremendous range. Oh yeah. And kind of disappears into this role Brad. Yeah. I think that what Jeff Bridges brings to this is. Is a sense of authenticity and sincerity that you have zero doubt that and I honestly, I would say this more so than almost any other film. We've watched at the Coen Brothers, I think that all of the main characters in this, I think that that John Goodman also really embodies this that they just sincerely feel like they are not only playing a character but they are the character.

18:14 In such a deep and meaningful way that it does. It never feels put on that Jeff Bridges is, you know, just relaxing drinking or White Russian with a porn Empire like Tycoon. Like the the little comedic bits that they throw in there when he's like doing the old pencil shading trick like, things like that. Allow you to see honest reactions. Out of Him that are just like chefs kiss. Perfect. It's the kind of role where you're like, really. Can you fathom anybody else playing a role? Hmm But at the same time it's almost like can you even fathom Jeff Bridges playing this role?

18:59 Because he'd never played anything like this before this movie. And I think he has said this himself the more than a I believe the role was written for him, but it there's a lot of him. In this, it's not that far field in terms of the essence of who this person is to the essence of who Jeff Bridges as a person as I understand it, you know somebody who's deeply spiritual himself who you know, practices is a student of Zen who practices meditation and mindfulness. Who is deeply? Deeply kind and generous. - and on the side of the downtrodden, I don't know if you know this about two Bridges, but he has for many, many years.

19:49 Been a patron of I think it's feed America about Hunger with this children in particular in the United States. I mean, he's just a really good dude. He's a good dude. Yeah, I think that that that do that innate dude - of mr. Bridges comes through in in the Lebowski character and it could have been slapstick and Solace and A caricature a comic artist cartoonish really, but it's got so much soul in it, and I think that's because of the person doing the performance. I want to talk about some more these performances, like let's hit this main Trio of Bowlers. Yes, talk about John Goodman. Again, one of our Great American actors, who is an unsung hero? Yeah, I said it last week, for Raising Arizona. He has one of the greatest voices. Yeah, that God has ever graced upon a human. Indeed and here he is playing again, talk about disappearing into a role.

20:49 Like last week his character was this like disgustingly greasy and yet somehow still waxing poetic ex-con or escaped con and this movie, you know, he's got the intensity but it's a completely different character and I just think he, he and Jeff Bridges. Like, I don't know if anyone can match them scene to scene and not just in the the commitment to there. Foreman says, but they just seems like they were both born to play these roles. Well, they come across so deeply as best friends. Yeah, and if there's anything I love about this movie, it's that like the relationship between Walter and the dude is everything you want like a best friend relationship to be like they rip on each other. They push each other to be better. They tear each other down that.

21:42 And yet at the At the end of the day, they're still just going to go bowling together and be best friends. And there's a there's a steadiness to their wild relationship that you you need. And every good re, you know, real life relationship and I'm an also growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. I knew plenty, a Walter sobchak. Yeah, in my life, the the Polish Ukrainian Russian population and Wind is massive. Yeah, the amount of of, you know, former Catholic or still Catholic middle aged and up, you know, Eastern European men who fought in Vietnam was very high and I knew if you want her. So Jax's, it's just man, maybe that's Jewish convert. Was gonna say?

22:33 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the Jewish convert. Our Shabbos, baby Summer Sun. Yeah. Yeah. I don't roll on Shadow. Yes, and then you have, of course the brilliant mr. Buscemi who plays Donnie can I got this? I got five minutes into this movie and I was like, he's gonna die. I don't know. I don't know what I think it was just like the fact that it was a Coen Brothers movie and he was just Angelic and I was like, oh, he's he is definitely gonna die at the end of this movie. Maybe not by wood chipper but yeah.

23:15 He but them both being caretakers of this wholly innocent that is Donnie care about sis also sort of shapes that triangulated, but in triangulate it in a healthy way, I think relationship friendship between the three of them. I don't know, you know, where you fall on the Spectrum, Kathleen of like this is a perfect movie. If I do have one major gripe with the movie, it's that we didn't get enough of Donnie like their knees. He's just not in an enough for me and I wish he had, you know, like the running gag is great, what I just wish we had like one scene where we got to know him even a little bit more and like the tiny bit more. I agree with you.

23:56 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I wonder Where the footage because I'm sure they're there must be more of Donnie in there. I think we got more of Jesus, then we got of Donnie because it was, all right, let's yeah, comedy gold. Let's talk about Jesus here because and I'm not, I'm referring to John. Turturro not, you know, our Lord and savior character, the pederast eight-year-olds, dude. Alright, so this movie is as much as you can call something by Hers is famous is the Coen Brothers, a true cult classic. I mean, this is one of the last real cult classics. We're not super Financial financially successful in the theaters takes on a life of its own. I mean inspires our religion, you know, and out of that subculture this like insane worship for the character of Jesus.

24:50 In this movie happens to the point where he then gets his own. From what I hear, awful sequel to the movie, which Cipher key is to say, Yeah, I've never watched it. Yeah, I haven't either. It was it was rumored for years. The cone Brothers said they would never do a sequel, somehow this movie got made, I not sure why Turturro agreed to do it. I haven't heard good things about it and I haven't felt the need to see it. Although his character in Lebowski is just a great on-screen. Yes, Ln, he's not a central villain but he's just this menacing like he's the Pope Anything about him? Yes, he's the perfect person to have on screen for exactly three total minutes of screen time.

25:35 Yeah. And why you would ever want to expand that to its own movie? Doesn't make any sense to me. Like, it just says why I told me up and we're like, no, you know, reminds me of like in the early 90s after Wayne's, World happened and Lorne. Michaels was like, let's take every SNL character. And make, let's make the the, It's Pat movie. You know what I mean? Like it. Yeah, reminds me of that. I just even watching it back. Back. I'm so familiar with the character now that I forgot the, he's literally only in, like two scenes in this movie. Well, he's gross and he has no, he has no moral center, right? So, why would they want to explore that more? No, he's completely, he's there for us for comedic effect.

26:15 And to, as an example of what The villain is in there, in the Kona, verse read, were you familiar with that character? Like, had you seen any of the imagery of turturro's character from this movie or anything? No. Okay. Are you surprised to hear that? That character is the one that like took off? Yes. But when you say, took off like, hmm, I feel like the thing I have heard being in, you know, in and around culture over the last 20 years. I like I have heard, The Dude abides and I have heard of, you know, white Russians are what they drink in The Big Lebowski I like. So, I've heard things like that, I have never once heard about the pederast, Jesus, Quinn, Quinn, Tana, Donna, Donna. He, I don't think he's a beloved character. I think he's a character that people love to quote. Yes.

27:12 His quotes are insane, because me, and, you know, man. Yeah, if you take, if you come at me with a piece, I'm going to tell me it's just The whole thing is so gross, it's to go door-to-door to tell his neighbors that he's a pederast after he gets out of jail and he's a registered sex offender. Just gross. Yep, everything is gross. Longfinger purple fingernail on his left hand, everything is gross, but he's a fun costume because it's a purple jumpsuit. You get to wear a hairnet and race just. Yeah, I think what I love most about him in this movie is that you get to see he inserts a little bit of their normal daily life, into the Middle of this wild. Not normal for the characters lives in Iraq, right, right.

27:55 Like they're on an adventure. That's why the strangers here. Narrating, it. The stranger isn't narrating. Their bowling duels with with hey-zeus, but you get just enough of him to go. Oh, like, this is what their normal life is like. Like they Bowl all the time League Play, Man, pleading play. Exactly. It's so I think on that level Turturro is Is perfect and illustrating that for what? The Coen Brothers want to do here? Do you guys know about, first of all, have you seen Barton Fink? I have seen Barton Fink exactly one time, and it was like a decade ago and I need to revisit. So the the Barton Fink Lebowski connection is they were working on Barton Fink and the Barton Fink. This is not a spoiler for any bit of movies. Been out for like, twenty odd years, maybe even closer to 30 is about, essentially about a writer. John Turturro screenwriter who has writer's block, and John Goodman plays a character who is basically the embodiment of self-doubt and the devil who sets hotel hallways on fire with his mind and tutor is stuck in this hotel room with like melting wallpaper blah blah.

29:11 When they were trying to write that and we're stuck. They wrote The Big Lebowski. Oh I didn't know that. So they know sat on this for like what? Eight years probably they they were kind of writing them at the same time you know things move in slow motion and in Hollywood. So I think they were both written. I think the Big Lebowski was written in the middle of them. Trying to write that one, huh? Interesting, I think I've got that right? But so you can sort of see I do parallels between the Goodman characters except he plays a more beneficial. Isn't it ridiculous character and Lebowski? He's the fundamentalist to lebowski's, you know Mystic. Yeah.

29:55 But he's he's humanized in his interactions with the dude for sure. Yeah. And I think that again, I'm a sap for when the cohens go for the sentimental. Like I just, yeah, I think it actually helps me understand that the movie has meaning where some of their more recent movies, just don't do that. Me. And so at the, even at the end of this deeply, silly random farce of a movie, when you have Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, like sharing an embrace, it's like, oh, that's that's friendship. That's forgiveness. That's, that's Grace. And I love that about their early to mid career films, that they always find a way to kind of bring it back around to some of those themes. Brad before we go to break, I want to touch on Roger deakins for just a second.

30:41 But is there anybody else in this? Like, absolutely Stacked cast of characters that you want to touch on their performance. I mean, we mentioned Philip Seymour Hoffman. Anytime he is in a movie, we need to talk about him because he's incredible. Yeah, but I think that David Huddleston, oh, good lord has as the titular character. Yeah. Right. The Big Lebowski is incredible. Yeah, the the way he chews up scenery like he's chewing up a cigar as like, Rush Limbaugh. It is utterly perfect. In this film God, the bench is so deep in this film, David thewlis. Yes.

31:24 As as the yes, crazy. And then, Peter Stormare, I just want to stir mayor. I don't know how he pronounces his last name. You Know, Carl hummus, who, of course, plays one of the Hitmen in Fargo is just magnificent in his outlandish. - as this would be neelis. He had a great great 98 because it was this movie and Armageddon in the same year o'healey. Oh, yeah. And then, of course, you've got Ben gazzara who is one of our, you know, arguably finest actors in the last 50, 60 years and they kind of resurrected and I don't think he'd been anything for a long time and then before they cast and anaesthesia Julianne Moore who is, of course, who are like in the middle of her, I don't know, exploring the depths of the porn industry phase because she's like she comes off of Boogie Nights and then into this And I love that.

32:18 I have to think it was intentional because of the way, the cohens make movies, but the fact that her accent changes in every single scene, yes, like it starts with that. Kind of like transatlantic Cary Grant old tiny accent and it Katharine Hepburn. Yes. And then it's like, you know, she's tipping into like Scottish by the last time you see her. I know, it's a, it's a fantastic performance. But yeah, bright I think honestly those Two key ones that we talked about really are the ones that make this movie, what it is well. And then I would add want one more with without whom. I don't think the movie would have the same impact. And that is the very great Sam Elliott.

32:59 Oh, yeah. Stranger. Yeah. I mean, he just, you could put him as the bookend on any movie and I feel like any movie, you know what I mean? Like, I just went to see women talking last night, very serious movie and I still feel like I could probably find a way to make Make Sam Elliott, he's always make everything better. He's like he's a little bit like Jeff Goldblum. Yes, whatever you put them in, it's just going to be that much better. All right Brad what do you say? We hit pause here. We have a scotch to try. And before we get into this Craig and more, I want to say that Kathleen actually requested when she came on the show, that we find a non-alcoholic Spirit to send her. And we found this company that we had never worked with. Before it's a new non-alcoholic, whiskey alternative from a company called naked lady, which really fits in well with The Big Lebowski.

33:54 So, what we'll do is Brad and I are going to try this Craig and Or but we want you to hang around for the last part of the episode because at the very end of the episode, all three of us are going to sample. This naked lady and we're going to review. I also will get a bonus review out of that, but Brad, and I are gonna go get liquored up for, you know, a couple minutes, and then we'll come back. We'll dive into the back half of the episode and then we'll try this whiskey, alternative, what do you say Brad? Yeah, let's get to it, man. There you go. Today's episode is brought to you by Doc's Swensons. The legendary blending Wizards over there. Have created for us an incredible new addition to their exploratory, Cask series The French toasted this delicious pours, a straight bourbon whiskey finished in French Oak.

34:41 Casks and my oh, my has it, the bee's knees. The nose is a bombastic, balance of butter and pecans with vanilla and Oak on the side. Pallets, you've got some incredible caramel mixing with notes of orange creamsicle Rich cheesecake and black pepper to finish things off. We've got a nice Kentucky, hug the door along with a bunch of pepper and Oak. There are some long-lasting flavor here folks, and I'll be darned of Doc's Swensons didn't knock this one out of the park. It's that good folks. I don't know, buddy, a local speak easier. Go to Doc's whisky.com in order to partake in the hottest juice in town. Until next time, this is George be stagger signing off. Alright, so today we are checking out Craig and more 12 years speyside single malt, scotch whiskey Brad. This whiskey comes from a collection of Whiskey's that we got in a little box called the Coastal Collection. And I think we've tried the other two at this point. Now, we also had one that was like, it was they're called the classic Molt's if you ever see them on the Shelf, they're amazing.

35:45 They're, these three little 200 mL bottles, and you get to try these very well. Aged scotches is such a good deal. We really loved what was the one that we really liked this year. Not the Dalmore, the talisker 10. The really loves house for 10. Fantastic. Yeah. Actually I gave that to my brother-in-law's, a Christmas gift because I was like dude you're getting into Scotch a little bit. You need to drink talisker 10. Yeah, so I mean you know Craig and more has has an uphill battle for it to defeat that one in our minds. But man, I just love that we've been visiting space side lately. There's something about speyside Scotch is that it's I hate to say it this. Way, but it's like it's the most Irish of scotch whiskeys. There's there's so much brightness and fruitiness to them.

36:28 I'm really looking forward to this one man. Yeah, I'm super excited to how about. We just get into it man. For me, I think the nose here, you get some really unique notes on this, for me, it was honeydew. There's some like rose petals and then a little bit of like a tart cranberry. Yeah, this is very fruity and very enjoyable rarely. I don't know if I got just Pure honey on this knows which you normally I get pretty frequently on scotches. I like this Bible. Give it an 8 out of 10. Yeah, this is this is probably the fruitiest European whiskey we've ever had. I mean, just in terms of smelling almost like candied fruit, like it is, it's pineapple, and it's honeydew, and it's cantaloupe.

37:13 And like you said, there's definitely like a really bright cranberry, or something on that, kind of tart side in this. That I really, really, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it an eight and a half. If on the nose, I loved it a lot. Let's let's go man. Yeah and then as I got into the actual pallets, I think it came down a little bit. It went more into a dark fruit territory almost like a blackberry jam. I got a little bit of vanilla, the honey notes started to come through and then at the back end of the pallet, there was a little bit of a spicy clove coming in. Honestly, it was a really solid palette, but I'll give it a 7 out of 10 on the taste. I'm trying to figure out what the dividing line is between. Queen The Taste and the finish here because I got notes on the like after I swallowed new notes came up. So I'm going to save those for the Finish but there's really not a lot of sweetness here.

38:03 It's not bitter, it's just kind of like, you know, you were expecting sweetened tea with lemon and you got unsweet tea with lemon, like it just kind of reminds me of that a little bit. There's still some brightness there, but for the most part, it's just like a regular old barley flavor that, you know, Scotch whiskey. This was probably Bubbly the worst part of the experience. For me I'm just going to give the flavor or the pallet a six point five out of ten but I'm going to give the Finish an 8 because like you said as soon as I swallowed there was that kind of like allspice and clove and then honey crept back up into my mouth Danna and they're like that. That honey sweetness was not there on the palate but it was there on the finish.

38:46 So it's an eight on the finish for me. Yeah, I thought that the Finish was pretty solid, it had some really nice Barry notes. Stuck around. I just think that this whiskey would have done great at 86 proof like so many other scotches. I think it 80-proof the Finish. Really suffers, because of it. I'll give it a, I'll stick it a 7 out of 10 for the finish. All right? That takes us to balance again. I think that it's a fairly well, balanced whiskey. And the second sip, the palette really did open up a little bit, but it's still, is I think kind of clearly a step down from the nose and from the finish. So I'm just going to give this a A seven and a half on balance. Yeah, I'm right there with you, seven and a half out of ten on the balance.

39:28 It's a really solid expression of a single malt, and it's just complex' enough to get a decent score here. All right, Brad. What does this set you back in the state of Ohio? You can't get it in the state of Ohio. Bob so weird because like I bought this box set in the state of Ohio. You sure did? Huh. So they don't sell it like by itself. No, I not that I could see on No hlq. Wow. Okay. As I looked at it online, it looks like you could get it around the 60 dollar Mark, okay? If you're in a state that allows whiskey to be shipped to you. So I mean, it's fairly similar to like the talisker and tell us there's actually probably like ten dollars cheaper than this. This is not as good as the talisker was and if it's more expensive than that, also kind of dings it a little bit in my mind, I don't think this is a bad value for a 12 year aged Scotch.

40:20 I'll give it a six and a half on value. Yeah, I think it's just a little bit on the expensive side for me, there's just so many other scotches in the 55 to 70 dollar range that I would prefer. So I'll give it a five and a half on the value. It's not terrible but you know little expensive. All right, so what does that bring you out to bread? I am right on the dot 35 out of 50. I'm going to 37 on the dot so that takes us to a very easy to average 36 out of 50. Or 72 out of 100 that puts us right over that kind of boundary Mark where we start suggesting. Yeah, give it a try and I think I would say that, you know, if you can buy this 3-pack somewhere I would highly recommend doing that.

41:05 It's a great way to try single malt, see in an absolute heartbeat. Even at the bar, I think this is worth buying a poor of. I don't know that I'd recommend buying a bottle unless you really fall in love with the sample that you get exactly. Yeah, I'm 100% with you. Bob, wow, this was a very harmonious. Whiskey Review man. Yeah, yeah. Better than Raising Arizona. All right what do you say? We get back into talking about The Big Lebowski. Let's get to it. All right everybody that was Craig and more 12, a scotch that Bob and I were pretty impressed with. Yeah. Speyside scotches man. Dude. They they hit, man. They a great Spa.

41:48 It sure do. Well, with that review out of the way Bob, we're here at Canada's favorite segments to facts in a false to facts and a falsehood, I really need to go back and tally up my score from the sighting. You do. It's honestly close like you could be reveling in a hard-fought victory this point but I was going to see. It's a if we translate this to like the NBA. I am I'm I think I'm squarely in the play in tournament. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like I'm somewhere between seeds 7 and 10 because I'm right around 500, but I don't know exactly where I'm at. You're doing, you're doing great, you're the parent who's telling their kid like, yeah, you did. Great out there.

42:33 Bobby I am the Detroit Pistons of the film and whiskey podcast. That's correct. All right, man. Let's do this. This is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me all of them, as fact, and I have to guess, which one is completely made up. Now, this comes A huge caveat because the two facts in quotations come from the IMDb trivia page which is the least vetted page on the internet. I think so we have no idea if any of these are really true but we are taking that page at face value. What we do know is true is that only one of the three was made up by me. That's true. So if other ones were made up by other people, you know that that's that's not the game.

43:17 We're playing here. You just have to figure out which one I made up. This is true. All right man, hit me with the two facts in a falsehood. Alright fact, number one, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Hey Medina. Sod bowling shirt. The dude wears in the movie is a real 1960s. Bowling shirt found in a thrift store in Los Angeles fact. Number two, the Coen Brothers, normally, fastidious about their actors sticking to the script were slightly more open to improvisation in this film as they tried to emulate the dudes attitude and their filmmaking process. process fax number three, Jeff Bridges in his second career as a musician, sometimes tours with a backing band called The abiders a reference to the repeated line the Dude abides All right, here's what I'm thinking.

44:07 Number one, I can't tell if you're just appealing to the fact that I am from the Akron area and so Medina Ohio is like 30 minutes away and when I saw that shirt at the end, I was like, huh, Medina interesting? I wonder if there is a like a Medina or something in Southern California that I'm not familiar with. Hmm. So I don't trust. You is what I'm saying? Yeah, you shouldn't number two, It's the semantics of it that I don't like because I know for a fact that there was only like one or two improvised lines that got into the movie. There's that one at the like at the very end where Jeff Bridges called somebody like a human. What does he call him paraquat?

44:50 Yes. And they like that so much. They like put it in the movie, but aside, from that there, the cohens are real sticklers about hitting every single word. Exactly. Right. So, you know, No, if you didn't write that one I can see how people are trying to finesse that into a truth but it's not really true. Number three. I just have no idea. That's true or not. Jeff Bridges. Seems cool. He seems like he would have a cool band. And so like I'm just assume. That's true. I'm gonna say number two is the falsehood, just because that, I don't like the semantics of it, but it's not really true. Bob, you are 100% correct. Yeah.

45:32 It's also good. Ooh, wow. So there really was a Northeast Ohio, Connections, connection is, so the shirt belonged to a man named Art Myers, who was the foreman at Medina, Sod in Medina, Ohio, and was a part of a bowling league in the late 1960s. A good for him. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah it's incredible. I so there's a I'll send it to you later. Bob there's a tweet out there. I think it's from the Twitter account movie details, okay? And They have like a clip from the Akron Beacon article, but I haven't been able to find the full article so it literally stops in the Middle where it's like, you know, continue on D4.

46:12 But it finishes by saying that like art Myers kind of disappeared off the map for a long time, but they found him in Florida for this Akron Beacon article and then it stops. And I want to read the rest of the article. You know, we've never gotten to talk about the hometown paper Brad, but the Akron Beacon Journal. Yeah. Weirdly a hotbed for journalists that went on to like huge things. You'd Brian windhorse, try and Win horse. You know, I'm a sports beat ya. Chris Broussard also before he went to the New York Times, but then like Chuck Klosterman. Like he worked at the Beacon Journal for a number of years. I guess. It's a very weird. I don't know what it is about Northeast, Ohio, we just produce produced Talent at a rate that others don't I guess.

46:57 LeBron James and the bunch of journalists. Yep. So am I the only one who's seen? Jeff Bridges in the abiders play more than one slide? You? Yes, you'd be the only one. They're really good. They're fantastic. He's a great me. He's a great musician. Oh, that's awesome. I started this episode by asking you like, why is The Big Lebowski? The one that's on the cover of your book? And you're like, I don't know and then you've given me a million tiny factoids about how much this has impacted your life. Like, I mean, I actually knew why it was there it was, that's it's their Center piece of all of their work. It's the most cone Brothers of come Brothers films. Well, I think that's, I mean, that's a great segue. Let's start talking about the Cohen of it all here, Brad. I think we can talk the, you know, the directing. We can talk the writing.

47:48 I do still want to touch on Roger deakins at some point because we've had him twice now in this three film span. I don't know. Brad, what are you thinking? This movie of the five Coen Brothers films that you've seen. Now, does this feel Cohen e, or is it something different to you? Does it feel Colony? Yes. In certain I think technical aspects like the script is very clearly a Cohen script. It's witty. It's sharp. Its fast-paced and it has a certain catchiness to the way the movie flows that you're like, oh yeah, this is a Cohen script. I think that the camera work throughout the film is very Cohen E when it comes to the themes. Yes, I'm trying to think I mean you look at No Country for Old Men and you have like kind of diametrically opposed ideologies going at one another.

48:48 I think it's interesting that in this one, you have so many different viewpoints or ideologies. Just clashing in this free-for-all WWE cage match of a movie. Does it does that make sense? So I think that on That level it feels more over the top than some of the other movies that we've seen em. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it definitely is a transitional film, thematically into what you get like, you know, I talked about Inside Llewyn Davis, like they arrived at the end of that movie. And it's like, wow, this really is about nothing.

49:29 And it's about the cat. Yeah, yeah, right. But it's like the cyclical nature of of Mint and like mine that movie Just I did not like it. But either I think this one is kind of this midpoint where you get like, you know, I know you're going to disagree with me about the chaos theory here Kathleen, but there's there's so much Randomness happening and at the end of it, you kind of just throw your hands up and say, f it. Let's go bowling and there's obviously deeper themes going besides that, but this is one of the first times that I really felt like the cohens, didn't try super Hard to frame everything into a moral at the end of the story.

50:12 So much of the early work, feels like a fable, and I kept using that word especially with Raising Arizona, I love Raising Arizona, and maybe it's just because I'm a simpleton who can't, you know, doesn't like metaphor. But that movie, they they tie it up with a nice little bow for me at the end and you don't feel like they do that with the basket. I feel like absolutely do. That's what whole monologue by the Earth. The dialogue with the stranger at the end. Yeah. I mean they definitely tie a bow on it. I just feel like I have to dig a little harder to figure out, like, are they just putting a bow on this for the sake of putting a bow on this or these themes? Actually earned I would argue that there. Oh please, please argue? Yeah, this is why you're here. Yeah, no.

50:53 I mean II think it's there. I say, it's their most Coney cone film because these see these themes that are more and less obvious and some of their other films. So, Blatant to me in this one that this reflects sort of how Joel and Ethan understand the world. So interesting and that there is chaos, but at the center of that chaos and this is where I would say that. I don't think the dude actually lies to anybody. If you look carefully and he certainly doesn't cause Donnie to get shot or to have a heart attack. I mean, the one that's causing chaos.

51:33 Constantly is Walter for sure, for sure, the dude is trying to be present and trying to be calm and trying to be kind. And he is that to a fault, he is a truth teller, right? He's surrounded. The plot is filled with liars and charlatans, but the dude is not that it is just himself and At the end, we realized that he is sort of the axis that holds up this chaotic World. Hmm. That ending confrontation with The Big Lebowski where where he tells you know the dude or I guess the dude tells him like you just wanted a sap to pin it on and use you saw me and you saw loser you thought that it would be easy then don't really care about him. Yeah.

52:25 And he says well isn't that true? And it's For Laughs, he goes well, yeah, but it's a really, it's a really sad moment, obviously that, that he, he has the self-awareness to acknowledge himself as a loser, but some with that seems to be fine with it. That's, yeah, that's that's where the wisdom is that he's like, yeah, care. What people think of me and he's just present, I mean, you might, it's easy to chalk, it up to, oh, he's just stoned the whole time, but is he You know, I don't know. Brad one. Yes. Your interpretation is stoned the entire time. That was done a lot, but yeah, that was actually one of the trivia pieces I picked up. Was that John Goodman would ask the Coen brothers, know, Jeff, Bridges, would ask Jeff, what else would he be Woody?

53:12 Lays before this? Yeah, was efficient. Yes, thank you. Was he blazed before this conversation. He'd rub his knuckles in his eyes. His eyes already. Yep. Which is, which is a brilliant touch. But like yeah. Yeah. So this is our last Cohen movie for this season. I mean, over this miniseries especially and I'm trying to put it into context, I'm trying to Define, I keep calling things Co any like, what does that even mean? Did you see you know, because you your book deals with 2009 and prior in their filmography, is there like a consistent? I want to say theme or moral that they keep hitting upon. But yes, okay, what would you identify that? As it sits Fairly simple.

53:53 But quite powerful. Like, if in the in the moral Universe in the moral coma, verse, if you're decent and kind, you should be rewarded. But the world is not a fair place and so you might not be hmm. If you screw with people, And especially if you're unkind to people that you think are beneath you, you're going to wind up in a wood chipper. That's there's a little there's a little bit more to it but that's basically it. But that is it like kindness? Kindness is the most that the highest moral thing you can do in the universe and that gets us back to Marge Gunderson again. There you go.

54:43 You know that's all for a little bit of money is the the patron saint of the cohens universe honestly. And you know, and a lot of their anti-heroes or Yeah, anti-heroes is I don't think there are any actual Heroes and Coen, Brothers films. I mean, you could argue about Marge but she's also really human. Our get knocked down and keep getting up. Hmm, over and over and over again without complaint and they're not high and mighty and they don't think too much of themselves and they're not self-deluded. They're just decent people. Yeah, I'm trying to trying to get, I'm trying to collect my thoughts here.

55:24 I think that the dude does those things. Well, I just don't always believe that he has a strong internal motivating guidance system if you will, the the way he's portrayed is so laksa days. Ethical and so like he just takes every moment and just kind of like Ponders it for a second. Yeah, I don't know if I always believe that he really has a moral compass as much as he's just kind of like hey just stop causing problems for people, I guess like don't do that.

56:06 Not I guess though. You know, he's incredibly kind like he shows up for his landlords dance cycle and gives him. No. It's because the guy asked him to and he also doesn't have him, but he also doesn't pay him rent and that's not a very kind thing to do. It's not. But it's, it's not, you know, I got a feeling that that guy was the manager and didn't actually own the property, that was my sense. But I mean, yeah, what I added distance, I used to argue that he in, as I say, in my book, I argue that he's much more of a moral figure from Judea. Take perspective this lament vapnik these.

56:47 These holy people that don't realize that they are that sort of hold up the rest of the human race of God doesn't destroy us. It comes out of a Sodom and Gomorrah story, but I actually think more and more that he is a Mystic. He's just really present. And that, I don't know that he would use the word. I'm almost sure that he wouldn't use the word world morale, because you'd be like, well, what is that anyway, man? He just tries to show up for People, and to be decent. Hmm. I mean, forgive me for asking such an obvious question to sir. I mean, there's a reason I have to feel like there is a reason that they make lebowski's character look so much like the judeo Christian, you know, white male history paintings of Jesus.

57:34 Like, it's the long hair, it's the beard. The, I feel like they, they and they explicitly, you know, at the end, the closing narration by Sam Elliott, he talks about the dude, Being out there for all of us, sinners for all Sinners. And I just wonder if there's something to the idea that they purposely are calling. They call him a man for our times. Like, if this is the, the SoCal, the SoCal. Jesus of the 1990s, in some way. Like, I don't know. There's just too many things on Brothers. Films is by accident. Yeah, nothing. Yeah. And so yeah, I'm sure that was somewhat intentional. I mean, it was the Actor was based on a real guy who In fairness looked and dressed a lot like the Lebowski character. But, I mean he's definitely a Christ figure. I mean, he's even though it's Donnie. Who is the sacrificial lamb?

58:31 Right to give anything away folks. But yeah, I mean he's done, he functions that way. He is persecuted for his essentially for his trying to do the right, just thing. Yeah over and over and over again and keeps getting up and keeps trying to right the wrong and keeps trying to get his simple form of Justice which is just have his rug replaced because he was mistaken for a really bad man. Yeah. But your anything, if anytime anybody says, do you think that the Coen Brothers newt Yes, right. Absolutely be like asking, do you think Wes Anderson knew that you could see the wallpaper? Yes, you sir?

59:18 Oh, tours there aren't very many of them, but they are very, very, very specific about an intentional, but everything that goes into the film fastidious. Maybe not, as fastidious as our beloved West, but right? Yes, yes, yeah. I feel like a wise man. Once called, Wes Anderson, fastidious repeatedly bride. I don't want to get too far out of the like, let's look at this on a deep level thing, but I do want to come back to Roger deakins cinematography. This is a longtime collaborator with the cohens nine films, I think. Yeah, something like that. And this sounds really, the sounds really dumb to say, but I'm, you know, I'm a child of the 90s and I feel like there is a very strong like Delineating Mark of when movies, stop looking like 90s movies. And when they started looking like 21st Century movies, and I'm talking like, specifically about the, the use of high contrast in like the really crisp, like black levels on screen.

1:00:23 It's kind of like, when you watch a movie from the 70s, like the film stock they were using, it's unmistakably a 1970s film. And there's something about there's a very flat lower contrast. Look to, You know, you'll watch a movie like Braveheart It looks like 1995. I don't know how else to explain that to anyone. It just looks like 95 yeah even in some of deacons earlier 90s stuff like Shawshank and like Fargo hmm. They look like they were made in the mid 90s and then this movie Brad I'm watching it last night and I'm like I can't believe this movie's 25 years old. All right, just because of I mean the pacing of it is so different than what you would get in 90s comedies. So there's a lot of Cohen that goes into that too, but the look of Of it.

1:01:07 This is where I really feel like Roger deakins became the Roger deakins that cinematographers worship. Like there's just something about the look of this movie. That it feels like a turning point into what you get a few years later with a Brother Where Art Thou all the way through to movies, like sicario. So, I don't know. I don't know if it, I don't know if it makes sense to say, like, this really doesn't seem like he's started doing something visually different. I really noticed it with that sort of like, higher contrast, but I don't know if you guys Notice, you know, anything visually about this movie that you'd like to call out. Well, the, the shot that everybody always talks about that, I don't think I've ever seen done anywhere else. Although he often does a shot like this in a cone film, to usually, it's at the beginning of the end, is the shot from inside the bowling ball.

1:01:55 Hmm. He said, a lot of shots where you like trying to remember, which film it is the part and Frank, where you come up, that's not Barton Fink where you come up through. The pipes into the sink or somebody's brushing their teeth. That's, like, the opening shot or it's a big tall. Expansive shot, or a big wide Street shot. They always have. There's always one sort of like, oh, I know who's shooting this, and this is definitely a cone film. When I see, when I see it. And I always go back to the pudding in this 19th. They were shooting this 1997 with whatever technology. Existed.

1:02:36 Then he put a camera inside a bowling ball. I mean, it's the most mesmerizing, I always back it up and watched a couple times because I'm like, what am I actually seeing? Yeah. And I and I know that the cones are very fastidious about how they want things shot that they love collaborating with him because he pulls off these crazy shots that they want. And again, I don't think anything that the Coen Brothers do in their films is accidental. And I think that was meant to reflect a sensibility in the film. Yeah, I think for me as I watched it the movie that it reminded me, most of and especially the scenes of them driving around, it felt like a really cleaned up version of Pulp Fiction. Huh?

1:03:26 That like Pulp Fiction has the look of 90s movies. Like you were saying, Saying, but it instead of Braveheart being really washed out and, you know, just it's hard to tell anything apart from anything else. I think that in, in Pulp Fiction and in this, you get this bright sunny version of Los Angeles where people are driving around having conversations and interacting with the environment around them. And I don't know. There's something about that that just hit for me. That I was like, wow, this is a really a beautiful movie about a rundown City. Yeah, it is interesting it to me. What's interesting about what you just said is that a lot of the color that you're talking about happens inside? Yeah, the bowling alley, which was an actual bullets at there anymore, but it was an actual bowling alley. They shot in 43.

1:04:23 I think it was three or four weeks back in the day and then you have these shots that are, you know, supposedly in Bel Air or what have you. And I live here, right? Where I Think they're Overexposed and the colors a little washed out hmm like Los Angeles or California is not actually that bright they're just like trying to make it look dreamier or like what you mean. Yes I think they were trying to make it look, trim your because the colors that actually occur in Los Angeles are kind of more vibrant. Sure. The video the exterior scenes that you see, hmm, except except when they're inside the bowling alley. Or it's an external seen at night and then you see the sort of glowing and the color and the like that scene at the beach or even the scenes in the parking lot, outside the bowling alley, you know, they're darker.

1:05:21 The contrast is definitely there, but those colors that's very, very much what Los Angeles looks like. But when you go into the big lebowski's world, it's washed out. Well, Brad, you've already kind of segue doesn't do our last segment of the day, which we called make it a double. This is where we pair the movie up with another one to make a double feature of sorts did now, would you pick Pulp Fiction as your make it a double? No, no, no, no. Pulp Fiction is a vassal? Well, I mean, there, there are certain elements and I think about it that kind of match, just the all the different kind of plots intertwining on themselves, but no, No, I'm not going to pair this with Pulp Fiction.

1:06:06 I'm going to pair it with a much way more terrible movie. Oh goody, what's that? I honestly was trying. I was, I've been racking my brain this entire episode. Trying to think of another comedy that could even come near the realm of this mine. I couldn't think I couldn't figure it out. I wonder if it's going to be the same as mine. I guarantee you. It won't. Okay. I am gonna pair this with 1980 fives. Clue. Oh my God, that's really it. Yes, I just, yeah, like, that movie has the energy of The Big Lebowski, you know, it's much more zany.

1:06:51 Much more, you know, fast-paced in the sense that they don't have a main character, whose motto is the Dude abides. But I'm going to pair it with clue because I think watching those two movies back to back would be a wild experience. Which ending of clue though. Oh, that's you know that part II will allow the movie to choose for me. No, no, no. I'll just, I will just abide Catholic. I remember when that came out, we're like, what that's done endings. What you have to go, see it more than once. It was a sort of a brilliant marketing term, but eat that. Yeah, wow, that's a good pairing. I endorse that. All right, well, you're going to hate my hearing because I went to a much more conventional route, so the slightest push back.

1:07:35 I'll give you on all of your brilliant points. You've made today Kathleen is that I do agree with Brad a little bit that there are moments in the movie where the dude gets caught in a lie and it actually leads to my favorite, like one of my favorite moments of the movie where he's in the limo with the other Lebowski and Brandt. And he's like, yeah, we dropped it off and he goes we and then he calls me goes the royal. We, you know, white lie and there's something about the way that you can see the gears turning. As he processes his own lie that Brad, it reminded me of one of my favorite movies that is, we've debated on here as a comedy and that's the way that Jack Black gets caught in his lies in the School of Rock.

1:08:18 And now, listen, listen. I, I did not want to open the can of worms of you. Crapping on a movie that I really liked, but it did remind me. I said, okay, No, man. It's kind of like the School of Rock, but like, if Jack Black was more of a Stoner and then I realized Jack Black made a movie like three years after this, where he essentially played a discount store version of the dude, and it's a movie called Orange County and it's, it's not a great movie. But if you want to ride the wave of Southern California, Stoner culture, with some sort of heist thing mixed in, I think that you could do worse than pairing those up with orange, T. Yeah, I love Jack Black and I think I did too. And I love, I mean I honestly I wish I wanted to pair with the School of Rock, but I'm trying to stretch my boundaries here a little bit.

1:09:09 So got it. Well, and and yeah. And Jack Black is also, I think, in much the same Mr. Bridges way mr. Bridges. I think he often is playing a lot of himself. Mmm. Yep. So the movie that I immediately thought of which you probably haven't seen. Maybe you have, it's a fairly new film, but when I think If the spirit of this film and the character of the dude and then the characters in this film, about to tell you about, I think they would pair brilliantly and this this film and I'm going to name is also a little bit. I've described it. Like if late 90s, Coen, brothers, and Wes Anderson had a baby and it was set in Wales.

1:09:54 It would be. This film is called Brian and Charles. Have you seen it? No, I haven't even heard of it. It's beautiful. It came out last year, it's a small film. Hmm, about a guy who is an outlier for sure, an eccentric, who lives on a rural Farm, in Wales, his family has clearly died. He makes inventions out of junk, mmm. And and he decides, he finds something by the side of the road one day and decides that he's going to build a robot and it actually comes to life. His name is Charles and he lives with him and Charles just develops and actual Consciousness.

1:10:37 And he goes through the stages of like childhood development in about three weeks, until he has to be given his freedom, and then there's consequences to that. And it's this absolutely Charming Beautiful film about. About friendship and about family. And I feel when I saw it, I said the thing about the Coen brothers, and Wes having a baby but also just the tender thematic stuff in The Big Lebowski about friendship is also echoed in this film. So, that's the one I would choose. If I had to choose a cone Brothers film to pair with The Big Lebowski.

1:11:20 It would be the ladykillers which if you haven't seen, you really must. I think it's one of their most underrated films. I love the plugs for the ladykillers. Like not, not what I do. Good mentioned on this podcast, but I'm so so good. I've come to love it more over the years, it's just got such brilliant performances. All right? Well it's pretty clear, that Kathleen has thought way more deeply about make it a double than Brad and I have ever take her word at face value here. All we have left to do now is give this movie A score and while we do that, I want to talk a little bit about this naked lady. Oh yeah. And when I refer to this naked lady, I'm talking about this bottle of product is, it's very weird to just continually say, you know, Brad I just feel like the advertisements for this can go in so many directions, you know, like, yeah. When I get home from work, you know what? I like a naked little what?

1:12:17 So in naked lady on the Rocks. Yeah, it's naked lady without any vowels. So light and Kad ldy, Which I think is, brilliant, naked, naked litter. Right. We've worked out some Brands over the course of our podcast that have like really come in clutch for us. My relationship with naked lady has been about a week old, they followed us on Instagram, it was the most fortuitous thing ever. Kathleen's was like, Hey can you try to find a whiskey alternative and we've worked with a company in the past but I didn't want to like reach out to them for more free product. So I was like, man, I gotta find another one and I get on Instagram. A gram right after receiving this email from Kathleen and I found that they had followed our account nakedly.

1:13:00 I've never heard of them before, let me neither and I go hey, thanks so much for the follow. Would you like to immediately send us free product? Because I really need someone. So they were I mean you know they sent all three of us a bottle of this. It retail our I believe. $35 so is right in line with other whiskey Alternatives. Eat a bread. This is I think the first time we've ever really reviewed one of these on the show before, I'd like to give a couple notes on it. I've got it poured out in front of me. Lean to you. Seem to be somewhat of a connoisseur of these types of beverages. This is my like, my second one ever. So, yeah, I am a connoisseur of these and kind of briefly tell the kind listeners. Why I don't I'm not drinking right now. Sure, please. Yeah, please do. It's not a tale of Woe.

1:13:41 It's up because it's server January. It's because I was bitten by a rattlesnake three months, four months ago Really, that's a CO anything to happen and Randomness and I wasn't and I'm a big hiker, but I wasn't hiking when it happened. I just stepped outside the house to take a selfie at Sunset and I didn't put my boots on and I stepped on the wrong place. And I surprised a baby rattlesnake it bit me in the right ankle and I was anyway so I'm I survived it. Thank God for science. It was one of my stepsons is a surgeon and he said well thank God. It wasn't a hundred years ago, because they would have just shot your leg off.

1:14:21 I'm like, oh, thanks Dan. Oh, that's reassuring. Great. But anyway, because of that, because and baby, I don't know if you know this about rattlesnakes. I did not before this happened. Baby Rattlers are worst than adult Rattlers because baby Rattlers. Don't know how to control the Venom mmm. And so they just kind of go. Yeah. And I ended up getting 40 vials of antivenom. Oh my gosh. Over a five days. And I see you anyway, because of that. I'm not allowed. I'm uh, supposed to drink for a year to just let my liver reading from the toxins. Your liver is like the gone through the wood. Chipper, the end of.

1:15:04 That was a lot. Yeah, I'm a bourbon gal before this So and I like a cocktail especially in the winter time and I can't. And so I've tried to find things that right either replicate the experience, the ritual of having a cocktail or the experience as much as possible. And I have to say that Nicoletta is surprisingly close in the experience and the nose is great. It's D alcoholized bourbon. Which how do you? How does one? Yeah, you know, the copy on their bottle says that they re distill it and in doing so, I mean you know, the the vapor of the alcohol comes off of it.

1:15:49 So I assume that whatever is left behind. This is like completed whiskey. It's been in the barrel. So yeah, they're hoping to retain the oak character and some of that great. Noah, honestly, for me, on the nose of this, I get a lot, a lot of Apple, like green apple on this for me. And then there's like, just a tiny hint of like a medicinal, almost Brad. Like a like a cough syrup. Be kind of note, hmm. And I'm like, it's not bad at all. And when you taste it, it I mean, truly, I mean, this in the best possible way like it tastes like when you have a whiskey on the rocks and you finish it but then there's like a some residual whiskey in there, you let the ice melt and then you just take a golf. Of that, it's like water down whiskey. We have is honestly like the I think the best thing that a product like this can shoot for because these are not usually intended to be, you know, sipped on neat. They're usually meant to be mixed into some sort of a mocktail and replicate that experience but honestly it stands up pretty well neat and does it has quite a bit of spiciness to it on the back of your throat. Like yeah, good.

1:16:53 Yeah, I'm having. I just poured myself a second one and I normally don't do that. And what I Really appreciate a lot of these. Liquor Alternatives. I mean, there's tons of them out there. I've tried almost all of them had never heard of this one before, but I'm good. I'm their new biggest fan. Let me tell you, they don't, there's not a lot of sugar in this. There's a lot of them jack up the sugar, and I can't, I can't do that either. And so, I'm cognizant of both of the things. This is going to be my new best friend through what we call winter here in Southern California. I was going to say. I think, for me, on the, on the nose, it's almost kind of like a dark chocolate that has sat in your cupboard a little bit too long, and it's kind of like this, like, like shavings off of that. Dark chocolate.

1:17:42 Okay. Like a little bit, little bit. Musty Dusty chocolate. Yes, just a dark chocolate. It'll do in a pinch. Kind of like a last resort. Dark chocolate, the back of a cupboard. Exactly. And it'll do in a pinch and I think you're right, when you get into the actual drinking experience, it tastes like Okay. Watered-down whiskey that has some really unique spices going on. So I think that - lady is is is pretty beautiful. If I do say so myself. Anybody else smell? They all spice in there. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I almost wondered like what if they added any spices to this?

1:18:22 It's very I mean you know there's no floaties in here or anything but no no it's the way it attacks. Your throat is like it, it's not nice. It doesn't burn your tongue, it has that lasting kind of Cayenne pepper effect, and I really like that. Yeah, I do too. I do too. Well done. Nicoletti. All right. So naked lady has done a really good job. How have the cohens done? Is the question before us Brad? What would you give this movie out of 10? You know, I enjoyed this movie. It was fabulously. Fun II didn't even mention him in my bride explains but John Goodman steals the show for me. Jeff Bridges is fine and I know that might be sacrilege For like dentists out there Perl clutching, the Twilight Walter sobchak is an incredible character.

1:19:12 And I love what John does with that performance for sure. So, I I'll tell you this Kathleen, I'll give this movie one more shot at some point in my life. Please do I promise you, it's a second third viewing kind of felt, but for now, I will give it a 7 out of 10. Fair. Here's where I'm at. Brad. I'll let our guests go last because she's much more enthusiastic about this than we are part of the part of the covert reason. I asked, Kathleen to come on for this episode is because I'd only seen this movie once before and did not like it. And I was like, you know, I want a Counterpoint.

1:19:53 I want someone who has convincing arguments to, come on, unfairly. I will always compare this to Raising Arizona. I discovered Raising Arizona about a year and a half ago and It immediately became one of my favorite american comedies of all time. I think it's a ten out of Ten Perfect film. Wow. And this is a very different. Like this is about as far from Raising Arizona as you can get, in terms of like, you know, within their own body of work in terms of like just Vibes and pacing, and I'm still not the world's biggest fan of it, but I completely agree with Kathleen that second time around, this was a substantially better experience than it was the first few times. I'm gonna give it a seven point five out of ten.

1:20:36 They're keep watching it gentlemen. All right will do. But that said I think I might surprise you. First of all, this is not my favorite Coen Brothers. Okay, but you'll have to have me back for a different episode to find out what that is always welcome. I feel like It's not a 10 out of 10 for me. I feel like it's an eight and a half or a nine mmm, which would be slightly higher than I would give Raising Arizona and slightly lower than I would give Fargo. Which is also not my favorite comb Brothers film. So it's not perfect but it's wonderfully in perfect. Hmm.

1:21:26 It's the most perfectly. Imperfect film in my favorites, in my top five films. All right. Brad snap. Judgment rank. The three comedies that we just did O Brother Where Art Thou. Number one this Big Lebowski number two and Raising Arizona number seven. Wow. All right. Number seven gosh. I just sometimes man well we'll be taking application and it's sometimes there's a man and that is not Brad. Alright, so there you have it. Those are our scores for the almost had Raising Arizona. Those are our scores for the Big Lebowski, but we would like to know what you think you can find us on our social media accounts, Facebook Twitter, Instagram at film whiskey, or jump onto our Discord.

1:22:14 We are on there every single day talking to you guys, the fans of the film and whiskey podcast, you can find a link to download and get into our Discord Channel. At the end of every single one of our show notes. Once again, we've been joined today by Kathleen, false oniy off. Author of the Dude, abides, a fantastic breakdown of the Coen Brothers films Kathleen. Where can people find you to give you a follow? I am on mostly Twitter and Instagram and my handles the both on is the same on both. Excuse me. I think it's all that. The alcoholized bourbon going to my head. It's at God girl. G0d grrl know, I g0d grrl. And from there, you can also find my sub stack, which is where I write most often.

1:23:04 Well, thank you so much for joining us today. This was wonderful. It was delightful gentleman. Thank you so much for having me. We will be back next Monday, kicking off our last mini series of the Season, Brad, it's the listener pick and the listeners have picked, Michael Mann, to finish. I'll make a series well, so we'll be back next week. Starting with his 2004 film collateral, but until then, I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time. Reggie and we'll see you next time.